Champions!

Well-Known Member

Well what an end to a fantastic season that was. For as great as last year was, there was a hollow feeling amongst all of us when we didn't win that last game. That was not going to happen again this year.

Looking back, the CHL was a new but tremendous experience for our club. Before it was even half way done, Lordo wanted to do it all over with the wisdom that he gained through those games. I can't wait for next year's CHL games with our club being much wiser to the way that we need to play to succeed. That doesn't mean we'll necessarily win more games because these are all amazing teams with budgets 10x ours but we'll certainly make them work for it.

The CHL and having new players in new roles had an impact on our early season performance but with Mr. Lord at the helm, you know that he'll find the right solutions or die trying. Without a doubt, the addition of Tyson Strachan was a huge part of that winning formula. Not only did he quickly become the best shut down defenceman in the league, he had a double impact by allowing the rest of our defencemen to play the roles that they should be playing and improving their games. Next time I see Doug Wilson in San Jose, drinks are on me for delivering that guy to us.

Looking forward, there is always sadness at potentially saying goodbye to great players but in this case, even better people. This group is truly unique in what good people they all were to a man. Once again, that alchemy is all due to Lordo's tireless work on not only finding the right player but the right person. We hope that the personnel losses will be minimal as they have been in our other years but we don't know quite yet. We want everybody to focus on properly celebrating their massive achievements before we really start figuring out our roster for next year.

What I can tell you is that our players absolutely adore playing in Cardiff. As usual, departures will be people looking to move on to the next phase of their lives. I can't imagine losing a player that we want to keep to another team - in our league especially. I can also tell you that we never stop recruiting. There are players that we're not going to see for another two to three years that we have established relationships with and are prepping to be Devils when their days in North America are done. I even send them Sully's videos during the season to give them a glimpse of our winning ways and of course our world's best fans.

So thank you all for your support of this fantastic club. What a truly thrilling thing to be a part of. So many other things in life give me stress and concern. The Devils give me nothing but joy. Keep those off season rumours coming - I love seeing them - and I'll maybe give out the odd hint or two. Although the fact that someone got Drew Paris from my hint last year really freaked me out!

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well what an end to a fantastic season that was. For as great as last year was, there was a hollow feeling amongst all of us when we didn't win that last game. That was not going to happen again this year.

Looking back, the CHL was a new but tremendous experience for our club. Before it was even half way done, Lordo wanted to do it all over with the wisdom that he gained through those games. I can't wait for next year's CHL games with our club being much wiser to the way that we need to play to succeed. That doesn't mean we'll necessarily win more games because these are all amazing teams with budgets 10x ours but we'll certainly make them work for it.

The CHL and having new players in new roles had an impact on our early season performance but with Mr. Lord at the helm, you know that he'll find the right solutions or die trying. Without a doubt, the addition of Tyson Strachan was a huge part of that winning formula. Not only did he quickly become the best shut down defenceman in the league, he had a double impact by allowing the rest of our defencemen to play the roles that they should be playing and improving their games. Next time I see Doug Wilson in San Jose, drinks are on me for delivering that guy to us.

Looking forward, there is always sadness at potentially saying goodbye to great players but in this case, even better people. This group is truly unique in what good people they all were to a man. Once again, that alchemy is all due to Lordo's tireless work on not only finding the right player but the right person. We hope that the personnel losses will be minimal as they have been in our other years but we don't know quite yet. We want everybody to focus on properly celebrating their massive achievements before we really start figuring out our roster for next year.

What I can tell you is that our players absolutely adore playing in Cardiff. As usual, departures will be people looking to move on to the next phase of their lives. I can't imagine losing a player that we want to keep to another team - in our league especially. I can also tell you that we never stop recruiting. There are players that we're not going to see for another two to three years that we have established relationships with and are prepping to be Devils when their days in North America are done. I even send them Sully's videos during the season to give them a glimpse of our winning ways and of course our world's best fans.

So thank you all for your support of this fantastic club. What a truly thrilling thing to be a part of. So many other things in life give me stress and concern. The Devils give me nothing but joy. Keep those off season rumours coming - I love seeing them - and I'll maybe give out the odd hint or two. Although the fact that someone got Drew Paris from my hint last year really freaked me out!

Great post Steve, I also like your good self have stress and concerns at times, and again like yourself our team ease those concerns, the Devils are like a tonic to me, they raise my spirits, and my moral. This weekend was like no other, Sunday’s result and unbelievable experience was like no other, believe me there have been some amazing times on this Devils trip over the last 31 yrs. 1999 play offs were untrue, and blew us all away, but although that team was untrue, we didn’t win the league as well as the play offs. Have a great summer guys, and let’s look forward to another awesome season with the best team in the UK.
HAPPY HOCKEY DAYS

Well-Known Member

The signing of Tyson Strachan was the defining moment in our season in my opinion. There was no doubt we needed to change something in our line up, and I was among many others suggesting that certain players needed to up their game or risk being gassed. We all know how loyal Lord is to his team, but something needed to be done and that is where our owners stepped in and managed to coax Strachan to make the trip across the pond. This allowed us to have a spare import to use as and when necessary. His signing brought many things to the team, experience at the highest level, a fantastic game management, a calming influence to those around him, he never appeared to be flustered in any circumstances and oozed confidence which surely must have inspired his team mates once they realised what he was bringing to our organisation. I seriously hope he enjoyed his time with us enough to want to carry on next season in Cardiff.

Well-Known Member

Tyson Strachan's signing was a pivotal moment of genius. His arrival transformed the style, structure and mentality of our team. His experience and leadership injected confidence and calmness - look at the results from October onwards.

The re-signing of Strachs should be one of the top priorities this off-season....hopefully he can be persuaded.

Member

Thank you Steve and owners for your continued support and active engagement. The point you make about Lord recruiting for team alchemy as much as talent is an excellent one. Other teams (mentioning no names *cough* Steelers *cough*) recruit individuals but they don’t seem to gel as a team. This team ethic means you get more from players I think but crucially the whole ethos around the club means you retain them too. I’ve no doubt we’ve kept players like Martin & Hotham who could’ve gone on to bigger leagues because they feel appreciated here and a bond with the team, staff & owners. So when some fans complain that we’re not ruthless enough in gassing players (usually after one bad game) the long term picture is much more important. I’m guessing the word gets around also and you find it easier to recruit players who have heard of the respectful & stable set up here. So a lot of credit goes to the owners for allowing Lord to build that and not jumping on him to release a player who is having a rough patch.
(Sorry, appear to have gone on longer than I intended - in short, cheers guys )

Active Member

Steve the only words we can all say is THANK YOU and that doesnt seem enough,since you and the boys got involved we could never imagine how quick the turn around would be ,you said within 5 year we would win the league...I was happy with that but what we have won in 4 years is fantastic and thats down to you getting involved and backing Todd and Lordo this club is back and its because of you ,now lets go for the threepeat and look forward to another CHL draw and see who we get ...so enjoy your summer its deserved and once again Steve THANK YOU.

New Member

Great to see there is a long term strategy in recruitment with imports rather than flash in the pan signings. I can't wait to see Sidney Crosby mixing it with some young GB guns in a Devils jersey in a few years time

Active Member

Congratulations and thank you, Steve. Thank you to all of owners, management, players, staff, volunteers and the fans for making this a season to remember again. Given the change in the conference system, to win the league in the style and fashion that we did, makes this even more impressive and the play offs really was the cherry on top. I hope that when times were harder at the beginning of the year that it wasn't too bleak and that these moments make up for any of the negativity.

I'll be sad to lose any of the members of this team, but people move on for any myriad of reasons and as with anything in life, if you aren't evolving, you are moving backwards. I thought it was really summed up nicely on the BBC commentary when they said that we are the model franchise that the others want to emulate. They are right, of course, but it is great to hear it out loud. Not only are we the franchise that the others want to emulate, we are the target that the other teams will be gunning for next year, and having seen where we have come from, I couldn't be happier about that.

Cheers

p.s. if you could fix the CHL draw for us to get TPS, so I can visit my best man and godson in Turku, that would be great.

Active Member

Well what an end to a fantastic season that was. For as great as last year was, there was a hollow feeling amongst all of us when we didn't win that last game. That was not going to happen again this year.

Looking back, the CHL was a new but tremendous experience for our club. Before it was even half way done, Lordo wanted to do it all over with the wisdom that he gained through those games. I can't wait for next year's CHL games with our club being much wiser to the way that we need to play to succeed. That doesn't mean we'll necessarily win more games because these are all amazing teams with budgets 10x ours but we'll certainly make them work for it.

The CHL and having new players in new roles had an impact on our early season performance but with Mr. Lord at the helm, you know that he'll find the right solutions or die trying. Without a doubt, the addition of Tyson Strachan was a huge part of that winning formula. Not only did he quickly become the best shut down defenceman in the league, he had a double impact by allowing the rest of our defencemen to play the roles that they should be playing and improving their games. Next time I see Doug Wilson in San Jose, drinks are on me for delivering that guy to us.

Looking forward, there is always sadness at potentially saying goodbye to great players but in this case, even better people. This group is truly unique in what good people they all were to a man. Once again, that alchemy is all due to Lordo's tireless work on not only finding the right player but the right person. We hope that the personnel losses will be minimal as they have been in our other years but we don't know quite yet. We want everybody to focus on properly celebrating their massive achievements before we really start figuring out our roster for next year.

What I can tell you is that our players absolutely adore playing in Cardiff. As usual, departures will be people looking to move on to the next phase of their lives. I can't imagine losing a player that we want to keep to another team - in our league especially. I can also tell you that we never stop recruiting. There are players that we're not going to see for another two to three years that we have established relationships with and are prepping to be Devils when their days in North America are done. I even send them Sully's videos during the season to give them a glimpse of our winning ways and of course our world's best fans.

So thank you all for your support of this fantastic club. What a truly thrilling thing to be a part of. So many other things in life give me stress and concern. The Devils give me nothing but joy. Keep those off season rumours coming - I love seeing them - and I'll maybe give out the odd hint or two. Although the fact that someone got Drew Paris from my hint last year really freaked me out!